Timo Juhani Lindfors <timo.lindfors at iki.fi> wrote:
> If Openmoko Inc. had had such a reputation I doubt TI would have given
> them anything in the first place.
Holes in that argument:
1. Openmoko Inc. was a brand-new company created for the express purpose
of doing the free / open source phone project. Being a brand-new
company, they could not have or be expected to have any reputation at
all, neither good nor bad.
2. It is not companies who leak NDA'ed materials, it is people; the
people just happen to have access by being that company's owners,
employees or contractors. No company can be reasonably expected to
psychically read the mind of everyone they employ. If an ex-employee
or ex-contractor were to leak something several years after his/her
employment ended, there would be no conceivable way for whoever still
owns the Openmoko Inc. name to get in trouble for it.
I realize that a lot of people here (and in today's world in general)
probably believe that it's just plain wrong (in categorical moral terms,
independent of any man-made law) to break NDAs, let alone to sign one
with the express pre-planning of breaking it some time later. However,
please realize that your system of morality is not the only one in
existence. There exist other systems/schools of morality which not only
allow you to break NDAs (and to enter into such with the express intent
of breaking it later), but actually *require* you to do so.
A perfect example of the latter type of morality system is the Bolshevik/
Communist code of ethics established by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the
founder of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Lenin has stated
quite explicitly in his edicts and testaments to the coming generations
that any agreements ever made between the Soviet Republic and/or its
citizens and the bourgeoisie are to be considered null and void, and to
have no binding power on a Soviet citizen. Bourgeoisie is the old term
for corporations, ones just like TI, and per the instructions of our
great leader and teacher V. I. Lenin, every Soviet citizen is required
to view those corporations as enemies of the People. Being enemies of
the People, they are automatically devoid of any moral rights, and
therefore conventional morality does not apply to them.
If you purposefully lie to your comrade, that is in violation of
Communist ethics. If you make an agreement with your comrade and later
screw him or her, that is against Communist ethics. But it's the
opposite for the bourgeoisie (corporations), because they are enemies of
the People. Per V. I. Lenin, whenever you are dealing with a declared
enemy, everything is fair game, there is no such thing as a morally
wrong act in dealings with an enemy of the People. If you are a
Communist, you are expected and required to lie to corporations if by
doing so you can gain something of benefit to your class (the worldwide
proletariat). You are expected and required to enter into agreements
with the bourgeoisie and then treat those agreements as null and void,
if doing so can provide something of benefit to your Soviet Republic -
that is exactly what Lenin himself and his contemporary comrades did.
The matter can also be viewed in constitutional terms. Suppose I am a
Soviet citizen (which I am), and I have also entered into an NDA with
some company. My obligations to my nation and those to the NDA-issuing
company are now in direct conflict. Which one prevails? The answer is
given in the very Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics: a Soviet citizen's obligations to his or her Nation come
first and foremost, and they prevail/override/supercede any other
commitments one may have.
I am a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics both by birth
and by self-dedication. The fact that the USSR no longer exists as a
political entity is immaterial: my oath is to the principles and values
of Communism, and having political control over any particular plot of
land is not a requirement for this oath to hold its strength. The words
of this oath are enshrined in the final stanza of Anthem of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics, here is the official CPSU translation:
In the vict'ry of Communism's deathless ideal,
We see the future of our dear land.
And to her fluttering scarlet banner,
Selflessly true we always shall stand!
The above oath remains forever sacred and binding for people like me who
uphold the ideals and principles of Soviet Communism. It is immaterial
that my people no longer have political control over the big chunk of
land we used to have as our nation. It is also immaterial that I
currently happen to live in a geopolitical area which never was under
Soviet control. All that matters is that I am a Soviet citizen bound by
my oath to serve my people and our ideals and principles. Having the
training of an electronics and software engineer, I serve my people by
creating and publishing various works of Free Software and Open Source
Hardware. That also includes doing everything in my power to help
liberate any and all software and/or technical documentation wrongfully
withheld from my people by the bourgeoisie.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming,
MS